The Accident
by TheSaltyWatermelon
Summary: It started like any other normal day would But it didn't end like one.


Thursday's first 15 hours and 39 minutes had passed by like they did every week. Kuroko slept for the first seven hours, then got up, prepared for the upcoming day with brushing his teeth and hair and putting on his school uniform. When he was ready, about 1,5 hours after opening his eyes, he would walk to the bus stop near to his family's house and then take a ride for the whole 5.6 kilometers to Seirin highschool. He'd walk to the class and sit close to the back wall of the classroom, right next to the window with his light sitting in front of him. He'd try to listen to the teacher, but would lose his focus once in a while. He'd stare at Kagami's back with no thoughts running through his mind. Sometimes he'd write some little letters he'd pass to the redhead, trying to avoid the teacher's attention. Sometimes he'd just reach for his back with his pointing finger, drawing circles near to his neck.

He'd spent the breaks between the classes with Taiga, sometimes just by himself, sitting somewhere and reading a book he had borrowed from the library. During the lunch, he would either sit in the cafeteria with some of his teammates or enjoy his bento his mother would've made for him on the roof. It depended mostly on the weather.

At 13:15 he would have to go to the classroom alone. Kagami had a free period, and during that he'd leave the school building. He would either go to the basketball court that was on the backyard, or he would go to his own apartment that wasn't located very far from the school. You could get there within 8 minutes by bike. Sometimes he would go to get some snacks from a little shop nearby his apartment. He usually asked some of his teammates if they wanted him to get something for them. Kuroko sometimes asked for a single lollipop or a drink. Kagami would always bring whatever he asked for.

Occasionally he brought a little vanilla milkshake for him even if he didn't ask for a one. He knew his shadow loved them. It was one way he told him that he really was important for him.

When Kuroko would get from the class, the whole Seirin basketball team would gather into the hall. They would take a quick look at everyone's achievements and start practicing right after that. They would do a quick warm-up before actually starting the sweating. Riko had always planned some awful schedules for them which would make them feel powerless for the rest of the day. Sometimes they just played little games, the freshmen versus the seniors. You could never guess for sure who would be the winner.

Sometimes Kagami would be late for the practice, just like was today.

Kuroko was dripping sweat on the court. He was glancing at the clock on the wall every once in a while. Minutes passed by slowly. But Kagami hadn't come back. It was already two hours since he had left. It wasn't like him to be this late.

Where was he? Had he forgotten the time and was still practicing his dunks on the court at the backyard just by himself? Or had he left to get some snacks and ran into someone he knew and had a not-so-small small talk with them? Or had he just simply lost in the city? Or was he just skipping the practice? Without telling him?

Tetsuya didn't know, but he promised himself he would find it out later.

The lack of his light also violated Kuroko's practice. He wasn't used to playing just by himself, with the worry of his partner. He lost his focus every once in a while, missing countless passes, letting the seniors do way too many baskets.

"Kuroko!" Furihata asked for his attention from almost the other side of the court, panting heavily "Please concentrate! I don't want to lose again!" he requested, making the slender male straighten  
his back, turn his gaze right to him. He gave his teammate a short smile and a little nod before he wiped off some sweat from his forehead.

"I'm sorry" he apologized. "I promise I will do better now" Tetsuya continued just a few seconds before the game between the members continued. The sound of the ball bouncing around filled the whole room.

"Stop the game!" Riko's loud however forced them to pause their game before they had even actually started the next round. Everyone turned their gazes to her, letting the ball alone, letting it roll on the floor for a few meters before stopping completely.

Pure despair was written all over her face as he squeezed the phone in his hand. Lips squeezed tightly together he examined every member's face, trying to find the right words before saying anything.

"Kuroko, go change your clothes immediately," she said quickly, clearly fighting to keep her voice steady. "Kagami won't come here today. He has been in an accident" Aida started a short explanation, fighting the urge to let the tears out of her mouth. "He is badly injured."

After hearing of his partner's state Kuroko, ran immediately to the changing room, pulled his school uniform back on. He had no time to wash himself, not even his face before running off. He was in a great hurry.

Accident!? Badly injured!?

He had to get to the hospital, now!

Kuroko arrived at the hall of the hospital just 20 minutes after he had heard about the incident. The bluenette was still way too shocked to know how he should actually react to the information. He just wanted to see Taiga before saying anything, before letting himself imagine anything stupid.

At the information desk, a nurse asked him to sit down. A doctor would come to see him when they would get a better image of the redhead's state.

Kuroko sat down on the wooden bench in the waiting room. His both elbows resting on his knees face hidden into his palms.

His whole mind went white. He could find any words, not any colors, not anything to describe how he felt inside.

Empty, cold, dark, black, white. Lots of broken thoughts in his messed up mind. He couldn't bring any thoughts in their end before another would pop up and replace the other. He just couldn't get a hold of anything.

Blue eyes filled with tears, slender body shaking.

He felt so hurt, so clueless, so unprotected. He could keep his strong and cool cover up anymore.

Kagami had been in an accident. But what kind of an accident? He didn't know.

Kagami was badly injured. But how badly? How was he injured? He didn't know.

Kagami was just a few walls away from him. But would he survive? Would he walk ever again? Would he be on the cour with him even again? Would he be able to play? Would he be able to eat at Maji burger ever again?

He didn't know.

And it was slowly driving him insane.

"Kuroko!" his name was called again by a similiar voice, just like just some time ago at the school. But this time the voice didn't belong to his teammate. The owner of the voice was his former teammate, his former light.

Aomine's strong, concerned voice got the bluenette's attention, made him raise his eyes towards him.

Young male's cheeks were covered with thousand tears. His skin was all wet, including the skin of his palms. He bit his lower lip, not being able to say anything as the ace of Too academy walked to him, and kneeled down right in front of him.

"I heard of what happened to Kagami" he said silently, creating an eye contact between them. "Your couch called mine. She said that you... might need someone to wait here with you" he continued silently, not turning his dark eyes away even for a little while.

It had been years since Tetsuya had seen Aomine like this. Nowdays he always seemed like he didn't care about anything at all. Not anything but winning.

But now he was right in front of him, purely worried.

Tetsuya leaned slowly towards him, pressing his forehead against Daiki's shoulder, letting his tears wet his shirt. Both arms wrapped around his neck.

Whole body shaking, he hugged his former best friend with everything he had, letting every each of his unstable feelings out. Tens of seconds passed before he was able to say anything at all.

He had never been this broken before. Never.

He was afraid. So afraid that he thought the fear of losing someone that important to him would be able to kill him.

Daiki closed his eyes slowly before he gently wrapped his arms around the younger one. He kept him close, trying to give him even a slight feeling of protection.

"...It's okay... Kagami will be fine..." he whispered silently straight into Kuroko's ear, trying to sound as plausible as he could. "He will survive."

Tetsuya wanted to believe thos words, but he couldn't. He didn't want to be too sure about it and find out later that oh, wait, he didn't survive. No, it'd be too hard for him. It'd be too hurting. He wouldn't be able to make it through it.

Long half of an hour passed. Kuroko couldn't help but cry for the whole time against Daiki's shoulder. The people walking past him gave him compassionating looks.

Tetsuya was already feeling a bit weak from all that crying. The world felt like it was waving underneath him. He had cried way too much and drank too little of water.

The doctor dressed in a white jacket, wearing glasses and a mask in front of his mouth finally walked out of the room, walked to them.

He coughed silently, trying to get their attention.

Aomine slowly let off of the bluenette, turning towards the voice. Tetsuya still squeezed the fabric of Daiki's shirt in his hands, but he forced himself to pull slightly back, to raise his gaze to the man in front of them, to hear what he had to say.

"You can come and see him now" he said his words really slowly, looking at the crying boy with almost emotionless eyes as he pulled the mask off his face. "He had some good luck with him. He's alive and awake."

Tetsuya stood up immediately. His legs were shaking as he started to walk towards the opened door, the dark male following right in his steps.

The bluenette's hear beat like a maniac, pulse getting more aggressive with every step he took. There didn't seem to be an end for his tears. With every step he took he felt more weak.

Kagami would look awful. He knew it.

The bed of the hospital was placed right in the middle of the room. There was countless monitors and machines around the redhead who was laying there still.

A nurse had just finished changing the sheets. She filled a plastic bag with fabric pieces which were dyed red with his blood. Without saying anything he left the three of them alone in the room.

Just a silent beeb brought some voice every other second.

Taiga's lower body was covered with blanket. His left arm was wrapped up with a white plaster cast. Some bandages were placed all around his neck, his face, his other arm. He was full of bruises and scraches. All of the biggest injuries were covered, hid from their eyes.

As the redhead heard some silent steps to enter the room, he forced his eyes to open. It took a while before he could identify the blurry characters next to his bed.

"Kuroko..." he called the name of his shadow silently, before closing his eyes again. He just had no power to keep them opened. He called his name to test if he really was there or if he had just imagined things. He wanted to see if he would get an answer.

Tetsuya sneezed loudly before wiping away the tears from his cheeks with his palms. Seeing his friend in state like that really made him feel awful. Would he have been able to prevent this from happening?

"...Ka...gami...ku...nh..." he stuttered silently, slowly sitting on a chair placed next to the bed. His legs just weren't able to keep him standing.

Hearing his own name made the redhead's lips curve slightly. So Tetsuya really was there?

"...I never thought... something... like this... would happen... to me..." he muttered silently, keeping long breaks in between his words.

He was in awful pain.

Kuroko couldn't say anything. He just cried silently. He wasn't able to get a single word out of his mouth.

Taiga tilted his head slowly towards the other, trying to see his face. The headrest didn't make it too easy.

"...Kuroko..." he repeated his name again. "...I'm sorry... I didn't... see that... car coming..." he started explaining silently. He really wanted him to know that he didn't do this on purpose. He didn't want to worry his partner on purpose. "...I just.. I really... I don't..." he continued, red eyes tearing up. He didn't know what to say. He wanted to say something, but no logical sentences came to his head.

Aomine just stood right next to the door, silently. He didn't want to interrupt the conversation of those two. He was there for if something awful happened. He would be there for them if they needed him.

Kuroko brought his right hand's pointing finger on Taiga's lips. "Please... Don't... You don't have to... say anything..." he whispered, voice shaking. He couldn't keep it steady.

Kagami had started to explain why he was late for the practise. Just about an hour ago Tetsuya wanted to know, why was that, but now he did see no importance in that. He didn't need to know anymore. Not now.

It was the most important thing that he was alive.

The redhead squeezed his eyelids tightly closed, trying to swallow his tears, trying to look strong and not let himself cry. But he didn't succeed in that.

Tears ran down on his cheeks one by one.

"...I am just... so... sorry..." he continued apologizing. He couldn't help but blame himself about everything. "I... I can't even... fulfill... my promise... to you... anymore..." his unsteady voice, his silent voice whined.

Kuroko looked at his light, not saying another word. He didn't want to interrupt Taiga, even if it took long for him to get a simple thing said. It was understandable in his state.

"I... My legs...!" he whined, breathing getting slowly more and more fast. He couldn't keep himself cool and calm anymore. He had lost his self-control. "...I'm sorry.. I.. I can't..." he continued his silent whining. Saying what he was about to say was a hard thing to do. "I can not... run... or jump anymore...!" he finally got it out.

He turned his face slowly away, avoiding Kuroko's eyes. He bit his lower lip, still trying to swallow most of his tears.

"I'm so sorry... We... can not... become... the best players... in Japan... to...gether.." his unsteady whining was so silent that it was almost impossible to hear under the silent buzzing of all those machines he was attached in.

Hearing a thing like that of course made Kuroko's little heart break evn more. But it was so small crack among all the other cracks which were made in his heart earlier today that it was more than easy to ignore it. He slowly brought his other hand to Taiga's cheek, wiping off his tears with his cold, slender fingers.

"It's okay... It's okay..." he kept repeating silently. "It's okay..." he repeated again and again.

After a few tens of seconds Kagami finally turner his face again to the bluenette. He looked at him eyes filled with tears. It was more than easy to read how he was hurting, both inside and outside.

It must have been a great shock to hear something like that. To hear that he wouldn't ever again be able to do something he loved.

"It's okay..." the young male whined, eyes turned a bit reddish from all that crying. "...It's more important that you're alive... I don't care about becoming the best... I care about you more... I don't want to lose you..." the boy cried, secretly biting the inner sides of his cheeks. He pet the wet cheek of his light gently with his palm.

Kagami closed his eyes again, sinking the teeth of him in his lower lip, almost biting through its skin. He tried to press his cheek more tightly against the palm. A touch like that felt more than good after everything he had been through in such a short time.

"Kuroko..." he whined, voice shaking.

"...Kagami-kun..." the smaller one answered with a whisper.

The monitor which showed the rhythm of Kagami's heartbeat had gone crazy. He had lost his cool completely. "...I'm so glad that I met you..." he whisperet from between his silent sneezes. The pain and the whole moment had made him so emotional he couldn't understand.

"I was afraid that I could never tell you that... but I was... I survived..." he moaned, rubbing his teary cheek gently against his partner's palm. "I survived... just so... I could... be with you..." the redhead continued. "...Damn it..."

Kuroko leaned towards the male laying on the bed, placing his head on his chest gently. He heard his heartbeat.

He had already gotten hold of himself and was able to calm down a bit, but endless tears still ran down his face. "...It's okay..." he whispered again. "You just... have to get...well again..." the bluenette breathed.

"Y-yeah..." Taiga answered shortly. "..When I'm able to get... out of here... I want to go... to Maji burger... with you..." he muttered, voice still shaking.

"...Yeah..." the shadow answered shortly. "...I'll look forward to it"


End file.
